Gartner India Research and Advisory Services Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of Gartner Inc, is talking with five state governments to provide IT consultancy services and advices for the states' Citizen to Government Initiatives.

"We are in talks with the state governments, which have reached an advanced stage and we expect to finalise some of them within two to three months," Gartner India research vice-president Partha Iyengar told PTI in Mumbai on Thursday.

Maharashtra, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Orissa are in talks with the organisation he added.

Under CGI, Gartner would work towards formulating networking, e-goverance and portal policies for the state governments, apart from offering advises on foreign direct investments in the IT sector and installation of infrastructure among others.

The research agency would also offer its subscription programmes - annual and executive - to the state governments, enabling them to access information or seek advice from a panel of Gartner's IT experts and access its research papers, he added.

However, a majority of the work would be computerisation of land reforms, vehicle registration and other governmental procedures.

Gartner has been an advisor to the Andhra Pradesh government for the last four years.

On the development of IT in India, Iyengar expressed satisfaction and said the tier-I cities like Bangalore, Pune, Chennai, Gorgaon and Noida, Hyderabad and Navi Mumbai top the list, and added that certain localities like Salt Lake in Kolkata were also registering "commendable" growth.

On China emerging as a preferred Business Process Outsourcing location in Asia- Pacific region, he said India should not treat the neighbour as a rival, but as "strategic partner for progress".

On the face of it, China's entry into IT services means more competition to India, which so far has maintained its leadership in APAC region. Moreover, Indian IT vendors fear that is China may replicate its success in manufacturing sector in software services.

"But with Indian companies like TCS, Infosys, Satyam foraying into the Chinese market, it should emerge as a win-win situation for both the neighbours, Iyengar said.

Satyam Computer to set up China subsidiary

From China, Indian companies also have the opportunity to penetrate into Japan, due to its geographical proximity, which is also a "fairly large market", he added.

However, procedural hurdles could delay India's foray into China as experienced by Infosys in the past. "You cannot change rules overnight," he added.

Giving a breather to the Indian industry, Iyengar said that it might take some time for China to establish its presence in the global market.

This would result in Singapore emerging as the destination of choice for global BPO players, he added.